SportsWeekend
Gymnast Hardabura out for the year
Injury to defending national champion hammers NU «it was my shoulder that made the
tfyjonn Gaskins
Staff writer
In a season full of disappoint
ments and bad luck, Nebraska
Gymnastics Coach Francis Allen has
managed to add yet another achieve
ment to his legendary resume.
“I’m probably the only coach in
NCAA history to have five national
champions on his team and go almost
an entire season witnout mem on me
floor at all,” Allen said. “Now, that’s
quite a distinction. How many other
coaches can tell you that?”
It’s a distinction Allen obviously
could live without. The five national
champions he speaks of are three
time national champion Marshall
Nelson and two-time champion Jason
Hardabura, both of whom are out
with injuries for the rest of the season.
Such is the situation the 10th
ramcea uomnusKers p-J) will nave
to deal with as they travel to take on
No. 3 Penn State (6-1) Saturday at 4
p.m.
The latest blow to the already
blown-out program came this week
when Hardabura, who has battled
back and shoulder problems all sea
son and competed in only two of NU’s
five meets, decided he will go
through season-ending shoulder
surgery on Monday.
decision.
Jason Hardabura
NU gymnast
“It wasn’t me that made the deci
sion, my coaches that made the deci
sion or the doctor that made the deci
sion,” Hardabura said, “it was my
shoulder that made the decision.
“I knew it was coming. It hasn’t
been feeling any better lately. It’s bet
ter to start dealing with it now than
worrying about it after the season.”
The defending NCAA all-around
Please see HARDABURA on 14
Wrestlers
invade
Lincoln
■ The Big 12 wrestling
tournament houses four
of nation’s top ten teams.
By David Diehl
Staff writer
Tim Neumann has been around
the block a few times in the Big 12
conference.
Sunday he’ll go around once
more.
For the 15th year, Neumann will
take his No. 11 Comhuskers into the
conference tournament, but he said
there’s something different about this
one.
“I don’t ever remember a tourna
ment being deeper,” Neumann said.
Ttie quality of wrestling in the
Big 12 this year has put it on die same
dominant level as the Big 10. And the
talent in the Big 12 will be on display
Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
“With all those teams ranked so
high,” Nebraska’s 197-pounder Brad
Vering said, “it’s definitely one of the
tougher Big 12 tourneys I’ve seen.”
The conference boasts some
impressive figures:
■ Depending on which poll you
look at, the tournament has three or
four teams in the top 10. Iowa State is
ranked third, Oklahoma fourth, and
Oklahoma State is sixth. Nebraska is
ranked 11th by Amateur Wrestling
News, but 10th by Intermat.
■ Thirty-seven of the 50
wrestlers are nationally ranked. Of
those, 26 are ranked in die top 10.
■ Of the 26 ranked in the top 10,
six are ranked No. 1 in the nation,
including Vering.
■ Cael Sanderson, Iowa State’s
top-ranked 184-pounder. Sanderson,
who has not lost a collegiate match,
is pound-for-pound the best wrestler
Please see WRESTLERS on 14
Josh Wolfe/DN
ATI CONNER, at 174 pounds lor Nebraska, will be grappling on Sunday in the Big 12 Championship at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center. Conner was the California state junior college champion in 1998 for Moorpark Community
College, in the 165-pound weight class.
Swim team navigates itself to second place
From Staff Reports
Nebraska is where it wanted to be
ahead of the pack in a battle for second
place at the Big 12 Swimming and
Diving Championships.
First place appears out of die ques
tion for the Comhuskers after day one in
College Station, Texas.
No. 1 Texas is seemingly in a league
ofits own, with 318 points compared to
NIK; 185.
Iowa State isn’t far off the Husker’s
trail with 174 points.
Texas A&M hoped to challenge
Nebraska for second in the standings,
but the Aggies stand fourth after six
events with 152 points.
The Longhorns took five of the six
first-day everts. UT started die day by
winning the 200-yard freestyle relay
event with a time of 1:18.41, ahead of
Nebraska’s 1:18.95 mark.
Texas added insult to injury when it
took home the 400-yard medley relay to
end the evening. The team’s time of
3:11.32 was far ahead of die Huskers’
3:14.81.
Sandwiched between those relays
were individual Longhorn victories in
the 50- and 500-yard freestyle events,
and die 200-yard individual medley race.
Nebraska did come up big in the
one-meter diving event, with Erik Cook
claiming die championship with a score
of564.80, over 30 points ahead of run
ner-up John Eisler ofTexas.
NU senior Bert Locklin added more
points in the diving event with a fourth
place finish, and freshman Michael
Joublanc ended in eighth place.
However, in the pool all of the
Husker’s top guns were defeated in their
individual events.
NU’s Michael Windisch placed
third in the 500-yard freestyle with a
time of 4:22.01, behind a duo of
Longhorns led by the winner’s, Scott
Goldblatt, thne of4:20.42.
Val Kalamikovs finished third in the
200-yard individual medley finishing in
1:47.96.
In the 50-yard freestyle spring,
Texas’senior Bryan Jones won with a
time of 19.69. Adam Pine came in fifth,
place, touching the wall at 20.24.
NU women
dig deep
for victory
By John Gaskins
Staffwriter
With 14 minutes left to go at
Missouri on Thursday night, the
Nebraska women’s basketball team
was in the process of writing its own
obituary for the 1999-2000 season.
On die road, down47-37, having
just been trampled by an 18-9 Tiger
run to open the half, guards Nicole
Kubik and Melody Peterson took die
Comhuskers off life support and
turned the obituary into a life-saving
Hollywood screenplay.
Peterson and Kubik combined
for four steals and 13 points in a crit
ical four-minute, 15-2 run that
essentially saved the Comhuskers’
NCAA Tournament hopes.
Mizzou’s guards couldn’t handle die
Huskers’ defensive pressure for die
rest of the game, as NU stormed its
way out of the regular season with a
huge 80-66 victory.
“This was a huge win for us,”
NU Coach Paul Sanderford said on
his postgame radio show. “The big
thing was that they didn’t lose their
poise. I thought our kids played with
so much enerev at crunch time.”
Nebraska jockeyed itself into the
NCAA race by finishing the season
with four consecutive wins and a 16
11 overall record. By finishing 10-6
in Big 12 conference play, the
Huskers earned fifth place in the
final league standings and the No. 5
seed in the league tournament next
week in Kansas City. They play
Bay lor in die first round Tuesday in a
2:30 p.m. game at Municipal
Auditorium.
NU jumped ahead of 9-7 Texas
after trailing the Longhorns in the
standings the entire league season.
That may be key, depending how
many teams the NCAA selection
committee picks from the conference.
MU extended a 29-28 halftime
lead to the 10-point lead six minutes
into the second half before NU’s
defensive pressure and spread set
offense - which Sanderford said he
had used only once before this season
- triggered die season-saving surge.
Kubik grabbed seven ofNU’s 16
steals as the Huskers forced 23 Tiger
turnovers. The all-time NU steals
leader also fueled the offense with a
game-high 26 points. Fellow guards
Brooke Schwartz and Peterson
pitched in 16 and 12 points, respec
tively. -
“Three weeks ago, everyone in
the copy rooms said we woe dead,
and where was the fight?”
Sanderford said, “but these kids just
really believed in-what they were
doing. To see that rewarded by mak
ing the strong finish... I love March.
I told the kids in the locker room to
keep the March Madness going.”
